Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Horns...

Several years ago, I was hosting some colleagues visiting Sydney from our Italian office. As it was their first journey downunder, I incorporated a few sight seeing expeditions during their weeklong visit, including a walk across the Harbour Bridge. I'll never forget my friend's exclamation regarding how quiet everything was. "In Italy, we drive with our hand on the horn! Here, everyone is so polite!" I chose not to enlighten him to the fact that Sydneysiders were, in fact, quite familiar with the use of the horn, normally accompanied by a less than courteous hand gesture. Sitting as I am in truly polite Singapore, I continue to marvel at the lack of horn use, other than as a quick "just to let you know I'm here so take care." Singaporean drivers stop when and where they want, for whatever purpose...and their fellow road users just wait patiently for them to continue. It's brilliant.